MARTIN STONE, BOOKSCOUT, by PETER B. HOWARD.

SIGNED and INSCRIBED in pencil by PETER HOWARD on the title page: "for David and Beth / Peter Howard".

Published by SERENDIPITY BOOKS, Berkeley, 2000. Limited to 200 copies, so stated on the copyright page.

An essay by the late, renowned bookseller Peter Howard, about his friend, Martin Stone, a rock guitarist and an incredible antiquarian book scout.

Booklet, softcovers, sewn binding, 7.5x10 inches, 15 pages.

NEAR FINE Condition: just lightly handled, tight, bright, clean and unmarked.

Peter Howard, who owned Serendipity Books of Berkeley, California, and was at one time the President of the ABAA, died in 2010. Peter, wherever you are I want you to know that the Roast Suckling Pig you brought out every two years at the time of the San Francisco ABAA Book Fair was Yummy!

About MARTIN STONE (from Wikipedia):

******Martin Stone (11 December 1946, Woking, Surrey - 9 November 2016, Versailles, France) was an English guitarist and rare book dealer. He was a resident of Fingest in Buckinghamshire and, later, of Paris.

Educated at Whitgift School, Stone initially wanted to be a journalist and began as a cub reporter on The Croydon Advertiser, interviewing Jimmy Page when he was still a session musician. Stone's passion for the guitar led him to become a musician. His guitar talent was such that he was considered a possible replacement for Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones. Martin Stone played in many groups, including Junior's Blues Band, Stone's Masonry, Almost Presley, The Action, Savoy Brown Blues Band, Mighty Baby, Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, Southern Comfort, The Pink Fairies, and The 101'ers. His last album, which he called his legacy album is LIVE FROM THE TERMINAL CAFE with Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix (Cleopatra Records, Autumn 2019).

Subsequent to his musical efforts Stone achieved international notoriety as a bookscout. He is a major player in John Baxter's memoir A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict. He is the subject of a limited edition book Martin Stone, Bookscout by the California rare bookseller Peter Howard of Serendipity Books. He appeared in the television documentary Without Walls: The Cardinal And The Corpse (Iain Sinclair / Chris Petit 1992). He is also known to be the basis for the character Nicholas Lane in Sinclair's novel White Chappell, Scarlett Tracings (1987).

Stone was married in 1980 to Ruth Bullock and their daughter is the actress Sophie Leigh Stone.******